Atonement for Keira

Here's a bit of news we somehow missed this last week: Keira Knightley, who is now proudly in the "Oscar-nominated actress" pay bracket, has signed on to star in the screen version of Ian McEwan's Atonement. This will be the fourth film based on one of McEwan's novels (several have also been based on his short stories), and this one - which was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize - "is McEwan at his most closely observed and psychologically penetrating, and his most sweeping and expansive." So there. The novel tells a series of interconnected stories, all of which hinge loosely on the childhood actions of "Briony Tallis [to be played by Knightley], a privileged young girl with an overactive imagination." And don't worry about Knightley trying to play a 12-year-old - the character is grown up in all but the opening of the book.

The film will serve as a reunion (with McEwan standing in for Jane Austen) for the core team behind Pride & Prejudice, with director Joe Wright and producer Paul Webster once again guiding the project. Working Title (which was not involved in the earlier collaboration) no doubt is praying for a similar critical and financial success; shooting will begin in June.